Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1887-09-30
A Few Words of Common Sense.

A Few Words of Common Sense.
WHAT OUR TOWN HAS To STAND PROM
FRIEND AND FOE.
EDITOR STANDARD:
In recent trip away from Olympia,
| met on the steamers, trains and at
the hotels many old friends and great
many strangers who were tor the hrst
time on Puget Sound, and the one
thing which struck me forclbly IN
their conversation, when speaking OF
this lovely and favored city, was the
persistent hing which those who kaew
Olympia INDUCED in about her, and
the entire misconception with which
the strangers minds had been filled
with regard to her.
One lady from New York, whom
met almost in the shadow OF grand
old Rainier" said to me: "Oh, you
arc from Olympia. / hear 1t Is Is Il
very pretty village. was going there,
but the people in Tacoma told me that
being built on a little river one had
to land in small boat, and I'm not
good at climbing" She continued !:
81 wanted to go the whole length OF
Puget Sound, but when l was assured
at Tacoma that that rather ambitious
and crude little railroad town was ut
the head OF navigation, l saw nothing
to be gained by going further"
A gentleman, representing large IN
terests in the lumber business in
Michigan, was told by a man who had
lived years in Olympia that Thurston
county had no forests-that is no trees
fit for lumber, and no harbor to tow
the logs out if il had" an absolute
and deliberate falsehood, when it is
we'll known to all the mill companies
of the Sound that the best lumber has
always come out of the port of Olym-
pia, and to-day that the supply is the
finest and practically inexhaustible.
The resources of ThurstOn county are
being drained from her to build up the
manufacturing interests OF other local
tiles. The remedy for this, it seems to
me, lies not in the generous people OF
this community taxing themselves to
build and operate merchant mill, OF
which they have no practical knowl-
edge, but in offering inducements to
manufacturing capital, in the way OF a
convenient mill site and special privi-
leges, to come and locate here. Once
here, the advantages of the position
will be SO patent to them that they
will need no special inducements to re-
main.
Another point wish briefly to touch
upon. Several years ago, was told
by the officer then in charge that &c.
600, in one season, had been sent from
the Olympia postoffice to drygoods
houses in various parts OF the country,
and that in one month, about Christ
mas time, $1,000 had been sent away
in like manner. Later, ! learned,
that much of this money had been
sent away from the town by the fami-
lies OF men doing business here and de-
irving their support directly from the
town. For instance: A hotel-keeper
sent for his groceries; lawyer for the
drygoods of his family; a physician
for his medicines; a saloon-kceper for
his lager beer; a drygoods man for his
furniture, and so on. Where anybody
could by any chance sec saving OF
fifty cents in the advertised price OF
an article, they took the chance as to
quality, sent away for the goods and
then paid freight or postage on them.
One frequently hears ladies say: 81
am going to Portland, Seattle or Ia
coma soon shopping. You can't get
anything you want in Olympia, and il
YOU could who wants to be in uni
form?" The fathers and husbands
and brothers of these same ladies are
very generally asking the support, in
some branch of business, OF the very
men whom they fail to patronize.
| OF Olympus, as a charming and desir-
able place for home, even her enemies
can have but one opinion. Its clean
and level streets; its neat homes with
well-kept lawns and brilliant gardens ;
its grand old maple trees; Its lovely
drives in every direction; its accessible
bays and streams, where duck and
trout abound in their season, and its
haunts of bird and deer in the deep
woods; the delightful rows and sails
on the waters of it's always sale harbor,
land-locked, where a thousand ships
may ride in safety through tho widest
storm, and the hundreds OF camping
places on its shores, where cool and
and limpid streams flow forth; it,
fine scenery-mountains, forests and
sea-in one blended picture, full Of
, grandeur and repose, and it's genial
people ever ready 70 extend the hand
of welcome to "the stranger within
our gates" all conspire to make it
place of peculiar enjoyment.
"One summer in Olympia is worth
, a hundred in any Of the fashionable
, resorts" said lady recently, who
after enjoying the courtesies and hos
FATALITIES Of this people for season
. has returned to her home in the fal
8 East " always to regret leaving Olym
Mn and o1wo Va h0pinp IN some daV II